When we are laughing, our brain chemistry changes, increasing chemicals that make us feel happy. This also shifts our nervous system from the stressy “fight or flight” sympathetic-dominant state to the “rest and digest” parasympathetic-dominant state. It’s hard to feel stressed when you are laughing! Acupuncture also helps shift the nervous system to the parasympathetic state, which is one of the reasons it is so helpful for fertility, especially IVF cycles and embryo transfer. While we are in a parasympathetic-dominant state, blood flow is naturally prioritized to the reproductive organs. So use your mirror neurons to your advantage by limiting your exposure to stressful stimuli and increasing your exposure to ones that make you laugh!
The Best Tips for Supporting an Embryo Transfer
While an embryo transfer is a less intense procedure on our bodies compared to an egg retrieval, the stress is often much higher with transfers. So much energy, time and resources went into making an embryo, so it’s normal to feel some anxiety and to want to do everything possible to increase your chances of it working. There is a lot of information out there regarding advice for transfers, but not all of it is helpful. We want you to have the most accurate and effective tools to support your transfer cycles, so we put together our best tips based on current research studies and our 15 years of integrative experience supporting women through these cycles.
Navigating the Holidays when Struggling to Conceive
We know the holidays are typically sources of joy and gathering with loved ones. But when in the midst of a fertility struggle, these same gatherings and special days can be triggering and filled with anxiety and grief too. We joined together with our colleagues from The Calla Collective to give you some tips to make this time of year easier. Read on to learn diet tips, managing holiday stress and anxiety, and ways to use this time to prepare for getting pregnant in the new year.
Impacts of Vaccinations and Pandemic Stress on the Menstrual Cycle
Whether you’ve had a few irregular cycles during the pandemic already or are waiting longer than normal for a period, you are not alone. While we’ve known for ages that stress or changing times zones can temporarily shift the timing of the menses, so too can colds, flus, COVID and as it turns out, the COVID vaccine. While it can be weird, especially if your periods are like clockwork or you’ve not experienced this before, if you are trying to conceive naturally, this can be really frustrating.
IVF & Egg Retrieval Side Effects…What to Expect and How to Manage them Naturally
Patients are often hesitant to start an IVF cycle because they are afraid of potential nasty side effects and not being able to cope with all the hormonal changes, injections, and symptoms that come along with it. We are here to tell you that for the most part, our patients are pleasantly surprised that it’s not as bad as they expected! There are some common side effects you can expect, but they are generally mild and we’ve got some tips for managing them naturally!
Tips for Managing Anxiety and Processing Emotions while Trying to Conceive
Validating and processing emotions is far more important for optimizing fertility than faking positivity. Many of our patients feel guilt or shame for having negative emotions like fear and anxiety while trying to get pregnant or during an IVF cycle.
Struggling to conceive is hard on any person who experiences it and no matter how hard you, your doctor or any support person tries, we can’t control or force a pregnancy to happen exactly when or how we want it to. This is what makes infertility so tough, and it can create frustration, fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, shame, or despair. These emotions are normal! But they don’t feel very good, so we like to help our patients navigate THROUGH them, rather than resist or suppress them.
Improving Sleep Quality Naturally
Getting a good night's sleep can be a challenge for some of us. As NYC is getting busier and frenetic again, we are noticing people reporting more difficulty sleeping. Stress can stimulate the adrenal hormones and make it harder to fall and stay asleep. Here are some ideas to try to optimize sleep health when stressed...
Coping with COVID-19 Isolation
Collectively, we are navigating an unprecedented time of distress and isolation. For each of us, that might look a little different. When we find ourselves facing the unknown, especially this virus, which our brains perceive as a threat, our bodies may respond with anxiety and fear in a natural effort to protect us. It isn’t hard to find ourselves swept up in this buzzing anxiety drifting throughout the globe…
Tips for Fighting Viral Infections
When Infertility Becomes Traumatizing
Women struggling to conceive can score as high as cancer patients on stress surveys. While some women conceive easily, others can go through quite a long and painful journey. Depending on how long she struggles, and the way her journey unfolds, the process of having a family sometimes creates the experience of trauma in the brain.